PLAID Cymru leader Leanne Wood promised yesterday to redistribute wealth from London to Wales if her party holds the balance of power at Westminster.

Ms Wood said Plaid would use a hung Parliament to “unleash Wales’s economic potential” as she unveiled the party’s manifesto.

It includes measures to end austerity through investment, along with commitments to a living wage for all by 2020 and employee ownership and representation on company boards.

Ms Wood said: “The people of Wales can have faith in us.

“If Plaid Cymru holds the balance of power, we’ll rebalance power and wealth throughout the UK.

“Away from the financial sector in the City of London and to communities such as those in Wales who need investment.”

She revealed her ambitions at a launch in Arfon, a marginal constituency held by Hywel Williams for Plaid in 2010 which is being targeted by Labour.

Institute for Government expert Peter Riddell boosted the prospect of Plaid’s influence yesterday after he said a government was unlikely to be formed until May 27 — three weeks after the election — as smaller parties tried to strike the best deal.

But outspoken Plaid peer Dafydd Elis Thomas delivered a blow to the party’s appeal by telling Radio 4 that he had “no issue with the decision of the Welsh people to vote for Labour.”

Labour Arfon candidate Alan Pugh said Mr Thomas’s comment was hugely embarrassing for the party and “lays bare Plaid’s absurd claims it is the ‘voice of Wales’.”